


Strong Communication Skills

by JohnnyCremains



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Wano Arc (One Piece)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:14:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27343357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnnyCremains/pseuds/JohnnyCremains
Summary: Part of being on a team is communicating with your teammates.  X Drake enjoys communicating with some members of his team more than others, even when he's terrible at it.*Minor edits 12.31.2020, mostly for grammar and clarity.
Relationships: Coby/X Drake
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Once again rolling up to a rare pair, dropping one thing and wandering off.
> 
> Forgive any typos or choppiness, I did not even proof this because my options were post now without proofing or post sometime next weekend and it's 2020.

X Drake would not have described himself as a walking contradiction, but other people certainly had. He could understand what they saw he supposed. Drake was disciplined and exacting fighter who turned into a giant raging dinosaur. He was both marine and pirate, publicly traitor and privately loyal. He was willing to put a target on his own back to achieve his goals, but he had a strong self-preservation instinct (especially when compared to others from the worst generation). As far as Drake was concerned, none of these things were actually in direct conflict with each other. When it came down to it, he had a moral code he chose to adhere to and the rest of it fell into place.

Admittedly, some of the instincts that came along with his devil fruit had surprised him, but at the end of the day he'd always been protective of the things he considered his. As a child the only thing he'd had was himself, but the more he gained the more he wanted to protect. The dinosaur instincts he'd acquired drove him towards a very black and white delineation of what was his and not his, but he'd always been conscious of what was really his.

His ship was his. His crew was his. His role of captain was his. His position in the marines was his. Marine headquarters were not his. 

X Drake rarely visited marine headquarters. On the rare occasion he couldn't avoid visiting in person, he had to disguise himself and sneak through the halls lest he break his cover and frankly incognito had never been Drake's strong point. It was always an exercise in frustration and rarely did he feel the effort was worth the results.

Still, learning the faces of his unknowing allies was useful and occasionally he saw or heard something of note. For example, it was on one of these trips that Drake first saw Coby. There was a group of marines training in a yard, and a flash of color amongst the white and blue caught Drake's eye as he sulked down a hall. A closer look revealed the source to be an earnest, pink-haired marine, flushed with exertion and grinning at his blond companion. Cute.

Something about the marine made an impression, enough that Drake kept an eye out for the young man on his next visit to headquarters. He didn't catch a glimpse of him until he was on his way out, passing a wall of wanted posters.

The pink-haired marine was gesticulating excitedly at two of the posters and chattering away, a grin plastered on his face as he looked between the wall and the blond man, who was listening with an air of resigned patience. Drake was intrigued; was the young man planning to make a name for himself by taking down some big-name pirate? Somehow, Drake doubted it; the light in his expression had more determined idealism than grasping ambition. He gave into the urge to slow down as he passed them.

"Even if no one will give us the details about the latest incident, we both know how Luffy is," the pink marine was saying enthusiastically. "I'm sure he really helped those people a lot!"

Drake tripped and fought back a choking noise as the blond nodded a little reluctantly. These marines knew Monkey D. Luffy? Whatever Drake had expected to learn from eavesdropping, the affectionate way that the marine spoke of Straw Hat wasn't it.

Unfortunately Drake couldn't afford to linger, he had a ship to catch. Glancing back once more as he slipped out of headquarters, Drake couldn't help adding to his earlier assessment. Interesting.

The next time Drake saw Coby, it was at the younger marine's orientation with SWORD. Drake hadn't known who the new members were, but he wasn't entirely surprised to see the pink-haired marine had been recruited. He wondered if Coby's affiliation with Straw Hat was common knowledge, and if that willingness to abide pirates in certain circumstances had contributed to his selection. The young man was just as earnest as Drake remembered.

They were at a secret marine base this time, instead of headquarters, which meant that X Drake wasn't trying to blend in for once. The new members had clearly been briefed on why they were here, but just as clearly they were not quite prepared to meet Drake in person. They handled it with varying degrees of aplomb, some freezing and some saluting awkwardly.

The pink-haired marine saluted as if it was the most natural thing in the world, elbowing his neighbor pointedly when the blond didn't immediately do the same. The blond saluted, then muttered something Drake didn't hear. The effect was immediate: Coby flushed as pink as his hair as his eyes flickered down Drake's body and back up, apparently without conscious intent.

Well, that was interesting. Drake kept his own eyes on the marine's face in what he thought was an admirable display of self-control even as he scolded himself for finding the pink marine adorable.

Despite his apparent fluster, the young man moved forward to introduce himself, surprisingly collected despite the blush. 

"It's nice to meet you, sir. I'm Coby and this is Helmeppo," he said, offering a hand to Drake as he nodded his head to indicate the smirking blond beside him. Drake accepted, noting absently how small and warm Coby's hand seemed in his.

"So how do you two know Monkey D. Luffy?" Drake asked abruptly in lieu of a greeting. Both marines stiffened, almost comically surprised, glancing at each other before answering. Coby let go of Drake's hand.

"We, uh, we're from East Blue," Coby told him hesitantly, not quite meeting the taller man's eyes. Helmeppo beside him eyed Drake suspiciously. "It's not common knowledge, but we met him there. Briefly."

"You seemed awful sure about his character from what I heard. Sounded like a little more than a brief meeting to me." Drake was digging, but if they were going to last in SWORD, they'd need to withstand worse than Drake's friendly nosiness. To his surprise, the Helmeppo snorted.

"Trust me, it takes approximately 15 seconds to figure out exactly what kind of man Luffy is." Helmeppo sounded almost derisive, but the smile on Coby's face as he nodded agreement was fond. Drake dropped it and turned to greet his other team members.

As expected of a venture like this, the other members were equal parts determined and eccentric. Having looked at their records (inconsistent at best), Drake could only trust that the admiral selecting them knew what he was doing.

Team training took a week, which marked the longest stretch of time Drake had spent on a marine base since his official "defection." 

In that time, he got to know his team members. True to his expectations, they were as talented as they were diverse. Drake tended to trust his instincts about people; something his crew liked to joke was a result of his primitive devil fruit. In reality, Drake thought he owed it more to his past than his abilities. Growing up with scumbags for a not insignificant part of his childhood had honed his instinct for danger. Spending the rest of his youth with marines had cemented his self-control. Mostly. Admittedly turning into a dinosaur occasionally had not helped with that aspect of his personality.

Drake had always found sparring to be the best way to get to know coworkers, as it was the fastest way to learn about both their abilities and their style. As such, he insisted on sparring with every member of SWORD at least once a day during that week. He went out of his way to initiate conversations during sparring sessions, hoping to catch his teammates off-guard enough to get some insight into their personalities, with mixed results.

Helmeppo, he found, was tough to crack. The blond seemed to slip in and out of roles without meaning to, first haughty, then humble. Every once in a while Helmeppo would say something and then frown as though he was trying to figure out exactly why he'd said it. Having looked at his file, Drake suspected it was the result of stepping out of the shadow of an overbearing father. The blond had joined up at the same time as Coby, following some sort of incident not further described, and the pair had been posted together ever since.

In addition to being adorable and earnest, Drake found that Coby was charmingly enthusiastic both in his aspirations and his admirations. He was also honest to a fault. The young marine worked hard, with a determination that was admirable, even when things came slowly for him. Apparently, most things came slowly to him, which really made his unfading optimism even more astounding to Drake.

Coby was nonjudgmental almost to a fault, willing to give people the benefit of the doubt right up until he couldn't. If he were as stubborn about holding grudges, it might be understandable; but from what Drake could tell, that was not the case. He never quite figured out the history between Helmeppo and Coby, but he had the impression that their association had not begun on the friendliest of terms.

And of course there was the part where Drake sometimes got distracted by the glint in Coby's eyes when they sparred and was constantly trying to ignore the part of his brain that just squealed pink when they crossed paths in the hall.

By the end of the week, Drake had (somewhat unintentionally) divided the members of his team into two categories: his and not-his. Coby, Helmeppo, and three of the others were his. These would be the members he would report to either via snail or in person, depending on the sensitivity of the information. The rest would function in their individual roles but Drake would rarely, if ever, have direct contact with them. His members would pass along any information relevant to him, so most contact would be staged, public conflicts with marines orchestrated to maintain his cover.

Drake suspected that he would have categorized Coby as his even if he had fallen into the low-to-no contact group. He tried not to think about that too much.

Returning to his crew at the conclusion of the week was both a relief and a disappointment. A relief because Drake never quite felt at ease when he was away from his "territory" (as his reptilian instincts labeled his ship). A disappointment because no one in his crew could spar as well as the members of SWORD he'd been training with and he'd enjoyed it. His crew knew better than to comment on his disappearance (he'd nipped that sort of thing in the bud), but the relief when he ordered them to set sail was palpable. 

"You seem happy," his first mate, Thomas, commented as the crew scurried to cast off. It was the closest anyone on the crew would get to bringing up his absence. Drake hummed noncommittally and after a final probing look Thomas wandered off, yelling at someone for not securing cargo properly.

Drake knew the crew preferred not linger in quiet ports and (though he'd never admit it) he did feel a bit bad about forcing them to wait whenever he needed to report or go on a secret mission. It was part of the reason he'd pushed for additional contacts to report to.

The plan worked about as smoothly as Drake could have hoped; as always, there were hiccups to iron out, but nothing catastrophic. He was able to increase the frequency with which he reported and decrease the amount of time he left his crew alone.

That Coby was the SWORD member to whom Drake most often reported was definitely a coincidence; however, he did appreciate that even during snail check-ins Coby would go out of his way to ask how Drake was or to mention something funny that had happened during dinner last night. He also appreciated that Coby was reliable: if Coby said he would be somewhere, he would be there. He was also very good at remembering to set up the next check-in, something Drake's other contacts often forgot.

So no one was more surprised than Drake when Coby shouldered his way between Drake and Thomas at a bar one night two weeks before his next check-in, leaned in close, and murmured urgently, "I need you."

Drake didn't actually choke, but it was a near thing. The face beneath the pink head of hair wasn't even flushed when Drake glanced incredulously at him, eyes bright and urgent. Over Coby's head, he saw the glance his first mate was giving him and made a split second decision. He angled himself towards Coby and smirked.

"Bold." Ah, there was the flush. Drake allowed his smirk to grow. "Let me buy you a drink."

When Coby nodded, Drake flagged down the bartender and ordered an ale for Coby. While they waited, Drake eyed Coby, wondering how to play this and very mindful of his audience. After a moment he asked, "So, dare or desperate?"

Coby, who had just thanked the bartender and had just lifted his mug, did choke. "W-what?" he managed to get out. Thomas snorted and Drake grinned.

"Dare or desperate? That was a bit heavy handed even for a pickup line." Coby, face now darker than Drake had ever seen it, buried his head in his hands drink abandoned. Drake tried not to laugh, but Thomas snickering behind Coby's back wasn't helping.

Drake draped an arm over Coby, irrationally pleased at how perfectly the smaller man fit tucked into his side and conscious of the heat radiating from him. When Coby reluctantly lowered his hands, Drake handed him his drink and leaned down to say in a lower tone, "Relax, it's not like I'm opposed."

Thomas' snickers died down, instead raising his eyebrows at Drake in surprise. Drake spared him enough attention to shrug halfheartedly.

Drake alternately teased and flirted with Coby as they finished their drinks. Another drink, and Drake ducked down to whisper in his ear, "I'll meet you in the bathroom."

Coby's face was permanently flushed by now, so Drake couldn't see if the huff of breath over his ear would have made him flush. He couldn't resist gently butting his face against pink hair affectionately before he stood up. He was distracted by the heat Coby's face was radiating as he made his way to the bathroom. When Coby ducked in a minute later, Drake locked the door behind him.

"Your first mate was laughing at me," he commented absently.

"Coby, focus. Why are you here?" 

"Oh, right! You need to delay your crew. There's some marines docked at the next island. We don't have any contacts with them, but they have a reputation for being… aggressive in pursuing pirates. You need to avoid them if you don't want a bloodbath on either side." Coby spilled the information in a rush once reminded of his purpose.

"How long?" Drake asked, straight to the point.

"Just a day, they're scheduled to drop some prisoners off at a base soon so they won't be lingering. The delay is just to make sure you don't end up on their radar." Drake nodded.

"That's easy enough. Anything else?" Coby shook his head.

"Nothing urgent."

"Well, we have some time," Drake told him, and started on his normal check-in report. When they had finished updating each other, Drake frowned at Coby.

"Bite your lips," he ordered abruptly. Coby blinked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Bite your lips. You followed me into a bathroom under a very specific pretense. So unless you want to blow my cover by admitting to a clandestine information exchange, we need to look like we doing something other than talking." He glanced in the mirror, running his hands through his hair to muss it up somewhat. Coby stared for a minute before the implication hit him and he flushed bright red again. He bit his lips, but whether that was obedience or awkwardness was unclear. Drake looked back at Coby, trying to assess him objectively.

"Take your glasses off." When Coby obeyed, Drake thrust his hands into pink hair, grabbing Coby's head roughly and trying not to imagine what Coby would look like if he actually held Coby's head as he thrust into a mouth red and slick from kisses instead of his own teeth.

Once he was satisfied that Coby's hair was realistically mussed, he leaned over to jerk his shirt up from where it was tucked in the slighter man's pants. To his credit, Coby didn't flinch at the manhandling, instead looking like he was humoring the larger man with some bemusement.

"Well, that'll do since I can't really order you to let me…" he trailed off, shaking his head to rid it of thoughts of the mental images that were far too appealing. "Anyway, that should do it."

Coby frowned at him, looking slightly put out.

"Why don't I get to rumple you?" Drake blinked at Coby before glancing at himself in the mirror again. His hair was mussed and his mouth was red. He didn't have a shirt to be mussed and the leather of the rest of his clothing didn't really "rumple" the way fabric would.

"I don't know that there's much you could do short of giving me a love bite or two, but—" Drake cut himself off and just gaped as the younger man leaned forward to bite him on the chest before proceeding to give him the most business-like love bite of his life directly over his heart. It was Drake's turn to flush bright red as Coby leaned back to survey his work with a self-satisfied grin.

"Okay, now that should do it," Coby smiled up at Drake. Something about Drake's poleaxed expression must've struck Coby because he suddenly flushed red and brought one hand up to scrub bashfully at the back of his head. "Anyway, I'll leave first."

Drake pulled himself together enough to nod and warn Coby to avoid Drake's crew as much as he could on his way out. It wasn't until Coby had left and Drake had taken a moment to cool down that he realized that the sight of Coby darting forward with exposed teeth had not triggered any of Drake's instincts. Not the fighting instinct that saw any sudden movement into his personal space as an attack and not the animal instinct that saw exposed teeth and movement towards vulnerable spots as threats. The former he put down to him trusting the pink-haired marine more than he'd previously realized. The latter was harder to explain.

When he left the bathroom, he went back to the bar and had another drink with Thomas for appearance's sake but he could tell from the amused expression on the other man's face that he thought Drake was distracted. He gave Drake a knowing smirk when he excused himself afterwards and moved towards the door. Drake ignored it and went to find a quiet, out of the way hotel to hole up in for the next day or so. Anyway, if the crew thought he was pursuing another round or two, they wouldn't think too hard about why they were suddenly off schedule.

As expected, when Drake finally reappeared a day and a half later the crew was more amused than annoyed at his disappearing act. Nobody even looked like they were questioning the sudden change in schedule. Drake nodded, pleased. He was even more pleased when they arrived at the next island to tales of marines who'd recently departed after attempting to haul in pirates wholesale.

The second time it happened, Drake was in a hotel. Somebody in the crew had spilled an absurd amount of bleach while cleaning the ship's bathrooms and rather than suffer the headache, Drake had taken a room in the town they were docked at until the ship had aired out. Given the number of crewmembers who'd eagerly taken off into the night, he wasn't entirely convinced the spill was an accident. Nevertheless, he'd barely put his bag down before quick, quiet knocking sounded at his door.

When he opened it, Coby tumbled in. Drake, alarmed, glanced out into the hallway to make sure no one had seen the slight marine tumble in. Coby was dressed in civilian clothes but given the fact that at least some members of Drake's crew had seen the man before, Drake found this less than reassuring. The empty hallway helped, but not enough.

As soon as the door was closed again, he spun around to face Coby.

"What are you doing here?" Coby, who'd been glancing around the room as though assessing the security, looked up at him in surprise.

"Helmeppo said you had time-sensitive information that was too risky to share via snail," Coby said, though it came out as more of a question. "We were the closest."

Drake frowned. He'd checked in with Helmeppo the day before and let the blond know he needed to set up a meeting with whoever was in the area as soon as possible to share some intel the navy would need quickly if they were going to act on it.

"I didn't say it was an emergency. I assumed he'd set up a meeting using the usual methods. Coby, information isn't worth risking your safety over." Coby looked dissatisfied with the response, face smushing into what could have been construed as a pout. Something about the expression tugged at Drake, and he felt his shoulders droop in defeat. "But you're here now, so let's not waste time."

He herded Coby into the rickety chair next to the equally rickety desk before sitting himself on the end of the bed closest to him. Drake had given Coby the chair out of politeness and the knowledge that he really didn't need any images of Coby in his bed to haunt him, but a primal part of him noted that the arrangement kept Drake between Coby and the door and hummed approval.

"I got some information about a deal going down within the underground in a week. The deal is for a shipment of weapons, but the players are rumored to have some connection to Smile so it might be worth pursuing for potential leads at least."

Drake continued sharing what he knew, Coby interjecting with questions here and there, trying to glean as much information as possible from the few rumors Drake had managed to hear. Suddenly Drake snapped his head to the side, nerves flaring.

There was shouting from the stairs, and Drake winced to realize it was his crew causing a ruckus. When the ruckus moved to his floor and didn't continue, Drake realized they were coming to fetch him and glanced at his companion, alarmed. Coby must have pieced things together as Drake did because he froze for a moment when he met Drake's eye.

And then Coby set his jaw and stripped off his shirt, completely unembarrassed. Drake lost of a fraction of a second to shock but by the time his crew burst through the door, Coby was pinned to the bed, legs hitched around Drake's waist and wrists pinned to the mattress.

Heart pounding, Drake glared at the trio of pirates that had broken the door. Drake would not be paying for the damages. There was a brief pause as his first mate and two younger members of the crew (who were normally found in a group of four with a penchant for trouble) took in the scene before the cacophony of yells erupted again and they moved forward in their urgency.

The sound that erupted from Drake's throat and chest was undeniably a growl and the addition of snapping teeth was more than enough to silence his crew. They carefully retreated to the door, looking a bit shocked. He'd never admit it but the actions, while impressively effective, were completely unintentional. Drake knew he had a major territorial streak, but that had never extended to his own crew before and the idea that he might be losing control unnerved him a bit. Beneath him, Coby was a hot line of tension.

"What?" he bit out. When they all opened their mouths, he cut them off. "One of you."

The three men traded looks, but after some shoving one of the young pair babbled out something about a fight and a local with a bizarre devil fruit power that boiled down to them needing to leave port as soon as possible. Drake, thinking of the chemical smell and the inevitable headache he'd have for the next day or two, sighed heavily and dropped his head.

It wasn't until his forehead hit the marine's shoulder that he remembered Coby was still waiting patiently beneath him. Drake wasn't sure at what point during the explanation Coby had relaxed, but the marine below him was softer than he'd been when they'd first been interrupted. He raised his head enough to meet Coby's startlingly clear eyes. The marine wasn't trying to hide his amusement. 

"Stop that," he told Coby, who opened his mouth as if to deny doing anything, but Drake turned to glare at his crew. "Go get the ship ready to sail. I'll meet you there."

Whatever they saw on his face was enough to get them to turn immediately to leave, although one of them had the guts to turn around and apologize for interrupting. Drake practically snarled at him and the man tripped in his haste to evacuate the room.

Drake started to heave another sigh, but the breath in was filled with Coby's scent and the sudden realization caused the larger man to flush crimson and scramble back and up. For moment, Coby just lay there on the bed, looking up at Drake with startled eyes and Drake had to look away before he did something he'd regret.

"I need to go," he told the smaller man, looking at the broken door instead of the shirtless man in his bed. "That was everything I knew anyway." The silence stretched a moment too long but when he glanced back at the bed, Coby was sitting up and smiling at him. Drake imagined the smile looked little disappointed.

"Understood." Coby stood up and pulled his shirt back on. He paused at the door and turned back. "See you around. Stay safe in the meantime!"

"You too. Don't do reckless things," Drake nodded to Coby. Coby glanced out the door, and finding the hall empty risked a salute and a grin before he ducked out and was gone like he'd never been there in the first place. Drake shook himself to get rid of the feeling he'd missed an opportunity and gathered his things.

The third time it happened, Drake was on the way to a bar. He was walking towards the door when Coby darted out of an alley, grabbed Drake's hand, and tugged him into the dark space between buildings. They were well into the shadows when Coby stopped and turned without dropping Drake's hand to squint suspiciously back towards the street.

"How long do you think before we get interrupted?" he asked turning to look up at Drake. Drake frowned down at him.

"Not long, they'll be wondering why I didn't make it into the bar." Coby nodded decisively and turned to lean back against the wall, dragging Drake with him. Coby reached both hands up to link them behind Drake's neck, dragging the taller man down to hunch awkwardly over the marine as he craned his neck up to whisper his news to him. Drake allowed this for a moment before cutting Coby off.

"Hang on," he muttered, "This is torture on my neck."

Drake reached down to heft the marine up, encouraging Coby to wrap his legs around the larger man's waist. Pressed against the wall like this, the pink-haired man's eyes were almost on a level with Drake's, but the solid heat of him was it's own kind of torture. He couldn't quite bring himself to move his hands from where they'd settled beneath Coby's thighs.

Coby blinked at him for a moment, surprised, before leaning forward to continue whispering into his ear. The information was useful, but Drake didn't think it had been worth Coby risking his neck for an unplanned meeting. Honestly, he suspected Coby had shown up less for urgency's sake than because he was excited about it.

In fairness, it was exciting news. News that could take the experiment that was SWORD to the next stage. If Drake could use the information well, this could get him an in with an emperor. The possibilities that would open up were endless. And yet, standing in a dark alley with his informant in his arms, Drake was more excited by the heat of Coby's breath against his ear and the thudding of the smaller man's heart where the pulse in his neck was so close to Drake's cheek. He forced himself to focus on the possibilities of his work, because he could not allow himself to think there were possibilities in his hands.

When Coby trailed off, seemingly having exhausted his store of news, Drake began asking questions. He virtuously told himself he was trying to clarify Coby's information because the pink-haired marine had been so rushed in getting his information out that the details had gotten muddled, events out of order. If the conversation continued for longer than it strictly needed to, well, no one would know and Coby didn't seem to be in a rush either. Drake wondered if it was frustrating for the young marine to travel so far for such a short exchange of information.

Someone on the street called Drake's name, too close to be ignored. Knowing it was only a matter of moments before someone stumbled on them, Drake turned and crashed his mouth to Coby's in a desperate attempt to add some realism to the charade.

As first kisses went, Drake wouldn't complain of this one. Coby's mouth was slack with surprise for a breath, then two. But then Coby tightened his arms around Drake's neck and kissed back enthusiastically. Drake promptly forgot everything in the frantic rush of mouths and tongues and panted breaths. But then…

"Really, Captain?" The voice was unimpressed. Drake jerked his head back and towards the mouth of the alley, feeling inexplicably caught even though things had gone according to his plan, such as it was. 

For a single frozen moment, Drake stared at his first mate. Then a mouth closed on his neck, teeth pressing sharply for a second. Drake couldn't control the shudder that rolled through him and he ground his hips forward without conscious thought, startled to hear a quiet groan escape Coby at the pressure. His first mate's eyebrows shot up as he abruptly spun around to face the street. It was for the best as Drake's face was now hot enough that he suspected it'd glow in the dim light of the alley. So much for his reputation.

He dragged his eyes back to the pink marine in his arms and found that Coby looked distinctly smug, if also a little pink-faced. Drake supposed that was warranted.

"This better be important," Drake bit out, the larger part of his consciousness trying to figure out when his hands had moved from Coby's hips to his ass.

"Depends on whether you think information about the next island is important, I guess. There's been some unsettling rumors."

"Unsettling how?" he questioned, eyes stuck on Coby's mouth. The marine was biting his lower lip.

"Unsettling in the way that things in the new world are unsettling," Thomas said, bordering on sarcastic. "Apparently ships that go that way are never heard from again. Local superstition has it there's a monster, but fails to give any description of what kind. Typical."

Drake looked up to Coby's eyes in a silent question. He shrugged in response and Drake rolled his eyes with a huff. He carefully let the smaller man down, setting him on his feet. Coby grinned at him and gave a small wave before ducking out of the alley and down the street.

"You know I think I've seen him before," Drake's first mate said mildly, still looking towards the street Coby had disappeared down as Drake came up to stand beside him. Drake bit down on his instinctive flare of nervousness.

"Really?" he asked flatly. The man turned towards Drake and snorted.

"Either that or you have very particular taste." Deciding on discretion, Drake kept silent but frowned at his first mate. The man smirked. "Please, it's not like we haven't noticed you disappearing occasionally."

"I'd be concerned if you didn't notice when your captain disappeared, but it's also none of your damn business." Drake turned and walked out of the alley, heading back to his ship. The first mate trailed him in silence for a time. The docks were in sight when he spoke again.

"It's not our business, but you don't need to keep it a secret either, you know. If you have a lover, that's your business. You don't give us a way to find you when you disappear though. Some of the boys wonder what we're supposed to do if we're attacked and need to leave in a hurry when you're nowhere to be found."

"I'll take that under advisement," Drake bit out, glaring over his shoulder at the man. Uncowed, the first mate shrugged. Drake changed the subject, knowing Thomas would let it go for tonight at least. "You said they talked about a monster. There's nothing to indicate what it might be? No remains or anything?"

Giving it further thought, Drake figured the idea had merit. A "secret" lover meant that he could stop giving his crew the slip so often, and meant that he could meet with Coby in private without the risk of being interrupted. It also saved him explanations the next time something urgent came up. He couldn't believe that was an "if" anymore, not after the third time.

He brought it up the next time he checked in with Coby via snail.

"My crew thinks you're my secret lover." Based on the choking sounds, maybe he should have eased into the conversation a bit. In his defense, they had to keep these calls short for security purposes.

"Hold on, let me go somewhere a bit more private." Ah, apparently at least some of the choking noises were Helmeppo. 

"I mean, they did catch us in a compromising position." It was remarkable really; Drake hadn't known you could hear a person blush.

"More than once, apparently. They think I've been sneaking off for clandestine dates, not meetings."

"And you didn't correct them?" Drake shifted uncomfortably.

"I didn't exactly have an alternative explanation to offer. Besides, they've made it known that they don't object." He outlined his idea. At the end, he was met with silence. "So?"

"It does… make sense, I guess? We wouldn't be changing the frequency of meetings?"

"No, you would just always be my contact and half of our meetings would take place one islands when my crew is present. Plus, you'll have the option to seek me out in emergencies. I won't lie, it'll be a bigger risk for you—especially if anyone figures out that you're a marine. If you don't agree, we don't do it."

"But there'll be less chance that you'll be exposed." Coby sounded firmer now. "I'll do it."

Drake had reservations still, but Coby sounded so confident that he had to smile. A beat passed.

"You know," Coby commented, and he was thoughtful now. "I think this makes me your handler, which means you're not technically my boss anymore even if you outrank me."

Drake, puzzled, agreed tentatively. He'd never really thought of Coby as his subordinate, the chain of command didn't exist in a conventional sense within SWORD. But Coby sounded pleased by the idea in any event. Much later, Drake would realize he should have given the comment more attention than he had.

After that, things continued in much the same vein they had been. Drake struggled to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and Coby continued to bulldoze through them without effort. In fact, Coby seemed increasingly determined to pretend boundaries were not something for them to concern themselves with. Not that Drake minded; to the contrary, he enjoyed the charade more than he should. But the more he enjoyed bending the rules, the more determined he became to enforce them.

At what point did maintaining a cover move to actual fraternization? Drake wasn't sure what to do when he started trying to remember every regulation related to fraternization he could. Unfortunately that wasn't many, as Drake had always focused on the pieces of the regulations that were most likely to apply to him. Fraternization had always seemed so outside the realm of possibility that Drake had never considered it.

The biggest change with the implementation of this new cover was the amount of time that Drake and Coby spent together. Rather than rushed moments in secret corners, there were long nights in private rooms. Absent of anything else to do (other than the obvious, which Drake tried his best not to dwell on), they spent the nights talking.

As a result, Drake learned a lot about Coby that he might not have otherwise. For example, he learned that one of the Coby's defining features was that the pink-haired marine valued doing the right thing above just about anything else. This by itself was unsurprising. What surprised Drake was that Coby defined the "right thing" as following his own sense of morals, rather than the laws and rules set forth by the marines. Drake didn't necessarily disagree, but had found Coby's justification of his position fascinating. The resulting conversation had stretched late into the night and had been illuminating, to say the least.

Coby had eventually shared his full history, allowing Drake to fill in the gaps of his file. The story had surprised Drake, but it was too outlandish to be anything other than unvarnished truth. The tale certainly explained how Coby and Helmeppo had met Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro, but the idea of Coby as a timid chore boy on a pirate ship was by far the strangest thing to Drake. Drake struggled to imagine the Straw Hat Pirates as ridiculous as Coby's story made them sound, but the earnest light in Coby's eyes when he described them forced Drake to reframe some of the stories he'd heard about them. At the end of the day, they could be as ridiculous as they pleased given what they'd accomplished, he supposed.

Other things happened, of course. After one particularly long stretch without contact, Coby marched into the bar Drake was drinking in, climbed into his lap without any greeting, and kissed him senseless until Drake, in a desperate attempt to save his sanity, picked the smaller man up and carried him into the bathroom. Once there, he set a red-faced and panting Coby down and leaned against the wall, using the cold tile to ground himself. The distance helped.

Or at least it did until the bartender banged on the door and threatened to castrate them both if they defiled the bathroom. Then Coby grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the bar, wolf whistles from his crew following them out into the night. Once out of sight of the bar, Drake dropped his hand and put some distance between them. Coby frowned, but didn't argue the point.

If Drake thought Coby looked vaguely disappointed whenever the larger man put distance between them, he dismissed it as his overly optimistic imagination. Of course Coby didn't look put out anytime Drake dragged them into a private room and then took a step back. Of course Coby didn't most often seek out Drake in front of his crew on purpose.

That Coby seemed to enjoy nuzzling into Drake's neck, climbing into his lap, or tucking himself under Drake's arm was irrelevant. That Drake had finally figured out why his territorial instinct went into overdrive around Coby was even more so. And the less said about how pleased Coby looked anytime Drake growled at someone trying to interrupt them the better.

As confusing as Drake found the situation with Coby, he had to admit his mission for SWORD was going swimmingly. The information Coby had given him led to another contact and one thing led to another as Drake slowly but surely got closer to one of the Emperors.

When Kaido first contacted Drake, he'd been half convinced the Emperor knew he was a mole and was luring him in to silence him. While this eventually proved not to be the case, Drake was still apprehensive when Kaido had invited him to join the beast pirates (perhaps "invited" was a generous way to refer to it). And he was even more anxious when he'd been ordered to report to Wano to join the headliners.

Something this big, he knew, had to be reported directly to the secret marine base. He told his crew they'd leave in a week. When questioned, Drake had looked at his first mate flatly and said he was saying goodbye.

"You know, you could ask him to come with us." The growl that ripped its way out of Drake's chest was completely unplanned.

"Absolutely not," he glared at the other man, who had taken half a step back with wide, surprised eyes. "I'm not exposing him to that kind of danger."

"You think it's that dangerous?" the first mate asked, clearly deciding to side step the issue of Drake's lover. Drake tried to relax his face, but knew he was still scowling.

"We're going to be on the same island as one of the Emperors. Even if we're there by invitation, of course it's dangerous."

Reporting to the secret navy base after so long was almost surreal after being away for so long. He was surprised to find that Coby and Helmeppo were both on base as well. When he mentioned his surprise, Helmeppo scowled and muttered something about Coby not being able to pass up an opportunity although the shorter marine jammed an elbow into Helmeppo's ribs before the blond could elaborate on exactly what kind of opportunity Coby was after. From the taller marine's wince, Drake guessed that the elbow had been a little sharper than strictly necessary.

While on base, Drake attended strings of meetings and debriefings. Coby, Helmeppo, and whatever other members of SWORD were readily available attended most of them. The others were limited to Drake and his direct superiors. In between meetings, Drake found himself somewhat at a loss. He had no official duties to attend to while on base and there was only so much planning he could do for a situation with so many unknown variables.

Coby, Drake knew, had other duties to attend to while on base. Without fail though, every time Drake found himself at a loss Coby would suddenly appear to keep him company. One afternoon, Coby tried to explain to Drake what exactly he liked about Luffy. Drake couldn't say he fully understood at that moment, but it did succeed in distracting him.

Several times when Coby and Drake were alone in a room, the shorter man leaned forward as if to say something, only to catch himself and lean back again.

On Drake's last day on base there was a full debrief with all members of SWORD. After, as the members of the team trickled out back to their duties, Drake turned to find that Coby had hung back, looking hesitant. Neither of them spoke as the last stragglers trickled out. Once it was just the two of them, Coby set his jaw in what Drake had come to recognize as his "I've made a decision" face. This was the expression that served as a precursor to Coby's most surprising actions.

"It'll be a while until we see each other again." Coby's face was unreadable as he continued. "Please stay safe, whatever that takes."

Drake was going to reply that that wasn't something he could promise, but Coby suddenly popped up onto his toes, bracing a hand on Drake's chest to press a kiss to Drake's slack mouth. Unlike their previous kisses, this one was chaste and tender and as Coby dropped back down with a slight flush on his cheeks looking embarrassed Drake suddenly connected a series of dots and flushed red himself.

"You know, I don't have to leave for another hour," he said slowly, hoping he wasn't overstepping. "You could help me pack."

Coby nodded, and trailed after Drake as the larger man turned to walk towards the room he'd been assigned while on base.

"Just to make sure we're on the same page, you don't actually want me to help you pack do you?" Coby sounded strained. Drake leveled him with a look that was calmer than he felt.

"I don't even live here, why would I need to pack?" Coby sighed, relieved.

"Good," he said, and Drake was sure that if his face got any hotter he would catch fire and likely take Coby and the rest of the base with him. Then Coby added, "If we get interrupted again before I get to touch you I'm going to scream. And not in the good way."

Drake choked on nothing. He couldn't figure out how to respond other than to quicken his pace until Coby practically had to jog to keep up. Halfway down the hall, Helmeppo stood up from where he'd been leaning on the wall apparently waiting for Coby. He opened his mouth, but Coby cut him off before he could speak.

"No. Absolutely not." When Helmeppo would have protested, Coby raised a hand and cut him off again with a raised hand. "No."

Drake didn't have time to decipher the look on Helmeppo's face as he moved past, but the blond didn't try to impede their progress further so Drake couldn't really bring himself to care about his reaction.

True to his word, Coby did in fact scream (into a pillow) when they were interrupted five minutes after getting to Drake's room. The interruption came in the form of a pounding knock and a proclamation that the admiral wanted to talk with Drake before he left.

Drake, as it turned out, did think of his room as his territory and abruptly turned into an dinosaur in a fit of possessive instinct at the idea of someone invading his territory with his "mate" in it. Coby, resigned, ignored him and began muttering darkly about not having this problem when he becomes an admiral while pulling his shirt back on. 

When Drake managed to turn himself back to human, he looked at Coby. Something about his expression caused the slighter marine's face to soften from its thunderous state. Coby smiled wryly at him.

"I know."

Drake moved forward, took Coby's face in his hands, and kissed him thoroughly. Coby melted against him and it was shockingly difficult for the larger man to pull back.

"I have to go." Coby hummed at him, looking a little glazed. Drake leaned back in for one last kiss.

"Don't be reckless," Coby said softly when they parted. "I'll see you when you get back."

Drake nodded and replied, "You stay safe too."

Then he turned and left before he could think about it, because the last thing he needed to do before going on the most dangerous undercover mission of his life was blow off an admiral.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was very tempted to make the summary for this, "In which X Drake repeatedly cock blocks himself."
> 
> It was originally going to end with them having sex before Drake left for Wano, but then this idea hit me while I was driving to work and it was too funny to me not to use. As an apology, there is an epilogue.


	2. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just an extra scene where they actually manage to have sex. Again, I wrote and posted this without proofing so it's entirely possible there's just a sentence without an end in there somewhere.

There was a lingering doubt in the back of Drake's mind when he was leaving Wano that Coby would have found someone else while Drake was gone. It wasn't unreasonable; Coby hadn't promised to wait and Drake wouldn't have asked him to. That would have been unreasonable when Drake couldn't even promise that he'd come back.

But now he was coming back and a part of him wondered if Coby had moved on and found someone more reliably available. Coby being Coby, he likely would've been too polite to mention it during one of their rare calls, not wanting to distract Drake.

And then Drake was away from Wano and still didn't have time to see Coby because of the fallout of recent events. In fact, two weeks passed before Drake managed to get back to the secret marine base for some time off to recuperate.

He was there less than two days before Coby showed up, sliding quietly into Drake's room one night after supper and closing the door behind him. Drake smiled at him.

"You're looking well." Coby was leaning against the door, and he was looking well. He was looking beautiful actually, the sight of him warming something in Drake's chest. Coby grinned.

"You're looking better than I expected," he retorted. His expression grew timid. "We, uh, got interrupted the last time you were here. Did you…" He trailed off before finishing the question, but Drake could guess what it was.

"Lock the door," he suggested. "If anyone knocks, we'll pretend we're not here."

The smile that got him was brilliant, and the stifled giggle Coby produced as he locked the door was the best thing Drake had heard in months. Things only improved from there as Coby crawled onto Drake's lap, kissing him senseless just as he had done ages ago in a bar on some island Drake had otherwise forgotten.

Unlike the last time, Drake didn't try to control his hands, instead allowing them to wander from thighs to hips to ribs and back. Coby kept his hands firmly on Drake's face as if afraid the larger man might back away again. There was very little that could have gotten Drake to stop at that moment, and so they stayed like that for a while until a breathy sound escaped the smaller man's throat.

The noise, not quite a moan, triggered something in Drake. Within a breath he had flipped them, Coby on his back beneath him, legs hitched around his hips. Coby dropped his head back enough to ask, "Do you remember that time your crew found us in the hotel?"

The breathless quality of Coby's voice stirred something in Drake and he had to lean down to kiss him again. He pulled back enough to answer, "Of course. You were stiff as a board, I thought I'd terrified you."

Coby shrugged. "I'd never heard you growl before, it was surprising. What I remember most though is you were stroking one of my wrists with your thumb. I thought you were doing it to calm me down, but I was never sure." Drake blinked at him and Coby took advantage of his distraction to start wriggling out of his shirt.

"I didn't even realize I'd done it," he admitted, leaning back so he could strip off his gloves and jacket. Coby snorted.

"I could never tell what you meant to do and what was just you being you." He shoved until Drake moved off of him before stripping off the rest of his clothes. Drake followed suit and when they were finished, he leaned down to kiss Coby again.

"The flirting was intentional," he told Coby between kisses. "Everything else just kind of happened." Drake shifted until he was fully over Coby again and now for the first time they were skin to skin. Coby whined into his mouth and for a minute the only thing Drake could think about was heat and friction and the smell of skin. 

He was startled to find a growl rumbling through his chest and pulled back slightly. Coby blinked up at him, flushed and slightly dazed. He quickly took on a more alert expression when Drake did not move again.

"What? What's wrong?" he inquired, brow furrowing and starting to look worried.

"I was growling at you." Coby looked confused for a minute, before his expression cleared and he shrugged.

"You do that sometimes." When Coby would have dragged Drake back down, the larger man frowned at him.

"It doesn't freak you out?" It was Coby's turn to frown.

"Why would it? You do it when you're feeling territorial and you do it when you're feeling… affectionate," he commented, still a little flushed. "It's cute."

Drake's face was burning as he buried it in Coby's neck. Thrashing around for a change of topic, Drake blurted, "The first time we met, Helmeppo said something to you that made you blush when you looked at me." Coby, who'd been absently rubbing Drake's arms, froze. The larger man was close enough that he could feel the flush traveling up his body and leaned up to look back at Coby's face, intrigued.

"It was nothing really. Uh, he made a comment about the leather you were wearing and when I looked at it all I could think was, 'I want to climb him like a tree.'" By this point, both of them were bright red. They stayed like that for a moment, staring at each other a bit awkwardly until the pink-haired marine suddenly broke into a fit of laughter.

"I really can't tell if you're doing this on purpose," he wheezed. Collecting himself, he shoved at Drake until the larger man obligingly rolled to lay on his back, Coby following after to straddle Drake's waist. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on Drake's chest.

"Do you need to talk about anything else?" Drake shook his head and Coby grinned. "Good, then no more interruptions."

Coby leaned down to kiss Drake firmly once, before sliding back to grip Drake's erection. He slicked it up perfunctorily before pushing back onto it. Drake's hands flew up to Coby's hips in alarm before he realized that Coby had prepared more before coming to Drake's room than he'd realized.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," he told Drake as sternly as possible under the circumstances. Given his breathless voice and wanton expression, it wasn't terribly effective. "I was not risking any sort of delay."

Drake forced himself to stay still as Coby worked his way down in small movements, though his thumbs worked soothing circles on Coby's hips. When he was fully seated, Coby sat still for a moment, adjusting. Then he reach towards Drake's head and muttered, "Come here."

Drake surged up, bringing his arms around Coby's waist as his lips found his neck, his jaw, his mouth. Then Coby started to move, breathy gasps escaping him with each repetition. As they found a rhythm, Coby's mouth went slack and Drake started nosing at him, nudging their heads together as they breathed the same air.

This time, Drake noticed when the growling started, largely because it elicited a moan from Coby, who suddenly dragged his fingernails down Drake's back. When Drake tried to stop himself from growling again, Coby murmured, "Don't stop."

The words, accompanied by a hot puff of air, released the tension with which Drake had been holding himself and Coby suddenly found himself on his back again. After that, the air was filled with deep growls, higher pitched, breathy moans, and the sounds of skin slapping together.

As their pace quickened, Coby reached his arms up to brace against the bed frame. The sight of the pink-haired marine stretched out like that for him, mouth slack with breathy sounds being punched out of him with every thrust, satisfied something primal in Drake and he bent his head to bite at Coby's chest and neck. And if he preened a bit at marking Coby as his, that was neither here nor there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I looked up whether alligators growl and accidentally found out that they make this growling bellow as part of their courtship rituals and I couldn't stop laughing at the idea that Drake growls when he's horny.


End file.
